“My friends told them no thanks we already ordered Uber,” Ibarra said. “At the beginning, there was just five to seven drivers, and then I turned my head to the left and I start seeing more taxi drivers coming out from the parking [lot].”

Ibvarra told NBC7 his nose is broken in three places and he suffered a dislocated and broken shoulder. Another friend of his needed 10 stitches; Others had bruises and black eyes.

Ibarra said he believes the taxi drivers attacked them because they were using Uber. He lives in Chula Vista and crosses the border about once a week, but he's never had this problem before. And he definitely didn’t plan on spending the Fourth of July holiday in a Tijuana hospital.

Ibarra is an architect and he'll have to miss a month of work at least. He’ll also need several surgeries and physical therapy appointments as part of his recovery.

Mexican authorities announced on Facebook Sunday that they detained three yellow taxi employees for harassing riders in incidents similar to what happened to Ibarra, though none of those men were involved in his incident.